A federal republic of southern Asia and member of the Commonwealth, India is situated on a peninsula extending into the Indian Ocean, with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east. Area: 3,165,596 sq km (1,222,243 sq mi), including the Indian-administered portion of Jammu and Kashmir. Pop. (1995 est): 935.7 million, including Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Cap.: New Delhi. Monetary unit: Indian rupee, with (Oct. 6, 1995) a free rate of Rs 33.90 to U.S. $1 (Rs 53.59 = £1 sterling). President in 1995, Shankar Dayal Sharma; prime minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Affairs

In 1995, with elections to the Lok Sabha (House of the People) due early in 1996, the major political parties did not appear to be in fighting trim. The Indian National Congress (I) underwent another split, with former minister Arjun Singh, who was expelled, being joined by Narain Dutt Tiwari to form a rival Congress party in May. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reputed for discipline, was also riven by dissension. The National Front-Left Front alliance was badly damaged with the breakup of the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh and squabbles in the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In June a new political party for members of the lower castes was launched by Phoolan Devi, "the Bandit Queen." (See BIOGRAPHIES.)

The outlook for the non-Congress parties had been brighter in March-April when, in elections to assemblies in five states, Congress (I) lost power in two major states, Maharashtra and Gujarat, and fared poorly in another big state, Bihar. The BJP won 121 out of 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly and formed a government under Keshubhai Patel. In Maharashtra it teamed up with another Hindu chauvinist party, the Shiv Sena, and the coalition won 138 out of 288 seats, compared with 81 by Congress (I), and formed a government led by Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena. Among the first acts of the new government were the renaming of Bombay as Mumbai and the abolition of the state minorities commission. Within five months it had also canceled the agreement with the U.S. company Enron Corp. to build a $2.8 billion power project on grounds of overpricing. The deal was renegotiated, and Enron agreed to reduce the cost of the second phase by $300 million.

In Bihar the Janata Dal under Laloo Prasad Yadav was swept back to power. Congress (I) had the satisfaction of wresting the Orissa Assembly from the Janata Dal, winning 80 out of 147 seats and forming a ministry led by Janki Ballabh Patnaik. It also retained power in Arunachal Pradesh, where Geegong Apang remained chief minister. In Manipur, Rishang Keishing of Congress (I) was sworn in as chief minister for a sixth time.

There was also a change of government in Uttar Pradesh. The Bahujan Samaj Party broke away from the Samajwadi Party and formed a government under Mayawati with the support of the BJP. The government lasted just over four months. The BJP withdrew, and presidential rule was promulgated. In Andhra Pradesh, N.T. Rama Rao’s ministry was toppled in a family revolt, and his son-in-law, M. Chandrababu Naidu, took away the majority in the Telugu Desam Party to form the government on September 1. The BJP had problems in its stronghold in Gujarat when Shankersinh Vaghela and 46 legislators rebelled against Keshubhai Patel and a new BJP Cabinet was sworn in under Suresh Mehta.

In Kerala, Congress (I), bowing to the pressure of its partners in the United Democratic Front, replaced K. Karunakaran with A.K. Antony as chief minister in March. The Punjab chief minister, Beant Singh, was assassinated in a bomb explosion on August 31, shattering the belief that terrorist activity had been put down in the state. Harcharan Singh Brar was the new chief minister.

Separatist activity continued in Jammu and Kashmir, and the government’s plans to hold elections in the state were negated by the Election Commission because of a fear of violence. The 535-year-old shrine of Nooruddin Noorani at Charar-i-Sharif was burned down by militants on May 11 after a prolonged engagement with security forces.

Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao reshuffled his Council of Ministers three times during the year, in February, June, and September. Pranab Kumar Mukherjee was given the External Affairs portfolio. Among those inducted into the Cabinet were A.R. Antulay (Health), Madhav Rao Scindia (Human Resource Development) and K. Karunakaran (Industry). P. Chidambaram returned as minister of state for commerce.

Three major welfare schemes were launched from mid-August: a national social assistance scheme for persons over age 65, a school meal plan to benefit 110 million children, and a group insurance scheme, together costing Rs 39 billion annually. The prime minister also announced a plan to build 10 million rural houses.

The Indian constitution was amended through the 78th amendment to give protection to certain land laws of states. The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act lapsed, and the government introduced a bill to amend the criminal law to deal more effectively with terrorism.

The chief election commissioner, T.N. Seshan, continued to be in the news. His petition challenging the appointment of two more members to the election commission was rejected by the Supreme Court, which advised him to mend his ways and reach decisions in the commission by consensus or majority. In another judgment, the court directed the government to appoint an independent authority for allocating airwaves. The court also ruled that the conversion of a Hindu to another religion (e.g., Islam) to contract a second marriage was illegal. The court asked the government to consider the feasibility of a uniform civil code but later clarified that this was not advice but rather a passing observation.

A special judge in New Delhi convicted 43 persons of offenses committed during the anti-Sikh riots following Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. A judge in Baroda awarded life sentences to 13 Shiv Sena members, and a Bombay judge held 166 persons guilty for their part in the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1993. (SeeSPOTLIGHT: Secularism in South Asia.)

Former prime minister Morarji Desai died in April, a few weeks after his 99th birthday. (See OBITUARIES.) In August, Sonia Gandhi (see BIOGRAPHIES), Rajiv Gandhi’s widow, expressed regret over the government’s slowness in investigating her husband’s assassination in 1991. It was the Italian-born Gandhi’s first public statement since the event.

The Economy

An official estimate placed the growth rate in 1994-95 at 5.3% and the increase in exports at 27%. Several state-owned industries made public equity offerings, but the government’s plan to award contracts for different telecommunications services met political and legal obstacles. The value of the rupee fell sharply in October, but the reserve bank was able to stabilize exchange rates. The stock market plunged in November.

Presenting the federal budget on March 15, Finance Minister Manmohan Singh announced increases of 12% and 14.6%, respectively, in the allocations for education and agriculture. Import duties were cut, especially on metals, electrical parts, paper, chemicals, and drugs. Revenue receipts for 1995-96 were placed at Rs 1,007,870,000,000, capital receipts at Rs 663,640,000,000, and expenditure at Rs 1,721,510,000,000, leaving a budgetary deficit of Rs 50 billion. The provision for defense was Rs 255 billion, a rise of Rs 25 billion over the previous year. The annual inflation rate stood at 8.23% during the week ended November 11.

Foreign Affairs

Relations with Pakistan remained uneasy, with India continuing to accuse Pakistan of aiding and abetting Kashmiri and Punjabi separatists and Pakistan alleging Indian help to antigovernment elements in Sind. The move in the U.S. Congress in September to resume arms supplies to Pakistan was viewed in India as encouraging an arms race in the subcontinent. By an agreement reached with China, both countries began withdrawing troops along the border in August. The South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation, at a meeting held in New Delhi in May, decided to launch a South Asia Preferential Trade Arrangement from December 8.

Prime Minister Rao participated in the World Social Summit in Denmark in March and the 50th anniversary of the UN in New York City in October. He also made trips to Maldives, France, Malaysia, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. Pres. Shankar Dayal Sharma paid visits to Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Among important visitors to India were Pres. Nelson Mandela of South Africa; Pres. Hashemi Rafsanjani of Iran; the presidents of Turkey, Italy, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Mali; the prime ministers of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Denmark; and the king of Bhutan. During Rafsanjani’s visit a tripartite agreement was signed between Iran, Turkmenistan, and India to provide road-and-rail access for Indian trade with Central Asia through Iran.

India rejected the call to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty after 174 nations resolved at a conference in New York City in May to extend the treaty indefinitely. The government maintained that the extension perpetuated the discriminatory aspects of the treaty and provided legitimacy to the nuclear arsenals of nuclear weapons states. It reiterated its resolve to work for elimination of all nuclear weapons. India also staked a claim for a permanent seat in the enlarged UN Security Council.